Vernon Man Guilty In 2008 Shooting

Faces 25-year Prison Term For Wounding An Acquaintance

Rockville Court

May 23, 2009|By DAVID OWENS, dowens@courant.com

VERNON — A Vernon man will spend 25 years in prison after being found guilty Friday of shooting and critically wounding a man in June 2008.

Jeffrey C. McEwen, 39, pleaded guilty under the Alford doctrine to first-degree assault and pleaded guilty to second-degree strangulation as part of an agreement with prosecutors. He had been charged with two counts of attempted murder, attempted rape and a host of other charges.

He is expected to be sentenced to 25 years in prison on Aug. 21. With an Alford plea, a defendant does not admit guilt, but concedes that the state probably has enough evidence to win a conviction.

Vernon police were called about 11 p.m. on June 2, 2008, to 17 Pillsbury Hill on a report of a man having been shot. A witness immediately identified McEwen as the shooter.

State's Attorney Matthew C. Gedansky told Superior Court Judge Terence A. Sullivan in Rockville that the victim of the shooting and a woman were in a bedroom of the Pillsbury Hill home when McEwen burst in and shot the man in the chest. He then turned the weapon toward a woman in the bedroom and squeezed the trigger again, but the handgun jammed, police said. The woman pleaded for her life, telling McEwen that she "had nothing to do with this," police said.

The woman ran into a closet, police said. McEwen, who had been drinking, pulled her from the closet, repeatedly punched her, then started choking her, police said. She passed out briefly, then came to and heard McEwen say to her, "Oh, you're still alive?" police said.

McEwen, in a statement to Vernon detectives, claimed that the victim pulled a gun on him and that he took it away from the man and shot him. Detectives later learned that the man who owned the house, Chris Brennan, had given the gun to McEwen moments earlier. Brennan told police that McEwen said he wanted to scare the victim with the gun.

Officers found the wounded man, who had called police, on the kitchen floor. Brennan told police that McEwen was the shooter.

The victim was taken to Hartford Hospital, where he was hospitalized for about a month, Gedansky said.

The woman who had fled the house after the shooting was located a short time later and told police what had happened. She told detectives that McEwen tried to rape her. She said that McEwen punched the man he had shot and demanded to know where his condoms were. The man did not answer. The woman said that McEwen grabbed her, dragged her to the floor and began choking her.

The woman said that McEwen told her to go, admitting that he had planned to rape her. McEwen then fled.

Brennan, the victim and McEwen apparently worked together, and the source of the dispute was that the victim did not want McEwen to work with them anymore because of McEwen's heavy drinking, police said at the time.